Soweto to Berkeley

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:13][Music] [Music] are are you are are [Music] you [Music] September 77 or Elizabeth weather fine it was business as usual in police [Music] 619 oh be [Music] because [Music] oh my is De might is dead [Music] when I try and sleep at night I can only dream in the outside world is black and white with only one [Music] color [Music] because [Music] I [Music] my is [Music] is the eyes of the world are watching now watching [Music] [Applause] [Music] out 1984 Berkeley California the University of California the anti-apartheid movement began here in the fall of 1984 and became the largest and most militant political movement on the United States College campus since the 1960s protests demanded that the University Administration remove its investments from companies doing business with South Africa the movement gained momentum when national black leaders LED an ongoing Civil Disobedience campaign at the South African Embassy in Washington DC and when members of the San Francisco longa Workers Union braved imprisonment when they refused to unload cargo from South African ships in South Africa right around the same time there started to be a reemergence of popular resistance to the government you hadn't seen that kind of uh upsurge in that country since 19 1976 since the Soto Uprising and what was significant about it was that it wasn't just a wave of unrest it was a sustained um period of Uprising that's continued to this very day you know in South Africa for the last two years there's been this unparalleled activity that occurs throughout the country that's you know totally un orchestrated that's just up you know Massive Resistance and uh through the struggle of the people you see a type of uh Grassroots Democratic Revolution that's that's taking place a revolution that's being fought with uh little in the way of arms and in the way of uh technical you know resources it's being fought with sticks and stones and with uh newspapers and with uh organizing at all levels of society and uh we're inspired by that over here and the college students in particular but not alone but in particular were inspired by [Applause] it the thing about the divestment movement which really took hold on American college campuses was the fact that on each campus you had your own Target your own Target for um addressing us complicity with South Africa because at each American University there was some connection through the companies that operate in South Africa some investment some connection through a board of directors um some way in which the University was interlocked the regions of the University of California perhaps more than any other directorate of a University American University directly represent that conflict of interest of a group that's supposed to have the interest of the University um at heart but in fact has the interest of major corporations the regions as individuals are both personally connected to uh some of these corporations and that they sit on the boards of these major corporations but they also have very important links to the institutions that that run America so the University of California and this um directorate that was running it was very much a part of the whole military-industrial complex that uh runs America and uh we the students were taking them out we would say we want you to divest and if you don't we're going to cause unrest on April 10th 1985 students occupied the steps outside the campus administration building they refused to move until divestment they renamed the building boo Hall in honor of the black South African leader Steven boo who was murdered while in the custody of the South African police from from day one there was maybe 20 people who at the noon rally decided Well Colombia had to sit in maybe we should too and so everybody looked to each other and nodded and said okay I'll bring my sleeping bag with you and and so people did you know and that night we had a huge general meeting there was like 200 interested people kind of trying to check it out and said you guys aren't really going to sleep on the steps are you and so people did and they spent the first night and then each day it grew and grew that sense of pride in what we were building we were doing more organizing by having an information table here where passers by no pressure just walk up get a little bit of information Walk On By if that's what you choose but everybody could participate we were so proud of that and other people were proud of it even if they weren't sleeping on the steps they said well you know b is all right whatever they're getting something gone people knew about about South Africa and the city in provided people a way to participate in all the different there was grandmothers against the partti you know who came out and participate on the steps there were linguists who sat at our information table people who came down from up Northern California just to cook food you know to feed the people who are sleeping here at night people were talking to professors and got the faculty to organize a group called faculty for full divestment there was the unions and and you know with all this with all this activity people were forced to take a stand that silence was was considered to be um complicity as we got to become a community we got to see what what makes politics politics I mean that there's problems and there's problems in our community on the steps that we needed to deal with like I say you know we we set up the the free food to take care of the people that were sleeping here but then hungry people came what are you going to do you going to turn them away know real tangible political issues I mean the fact that we were trying was was what was very touching to me and what made me interested bigger problems began to emerge at the nightly meetings which allowed every individual to say in the decision-making process hundreds of people could participate in the decision making now this was a great strength and it also proved to be a weakness here was the most participatory uh activity political activity in many many years hundreds hundreds of people you know thousands even uh involved with 400 500 people on the steps at night on Sprout hole steps at night deciding what we were going to do the next day and the third world group on campus saying wait a second we think that this whole environment excludes us this is not so you call it participatory but we have a hard time participating in it we felt it was undemocratic to have these long meetings 4 hours 8 hours when we I have things to do other students are not only active in their own organizations but can't spend hours and hours and hours on Sprout and that was the only way that you could put input you could have input or provide leadership they said we want to have a representative structure you know we want someone from the campaign and someone from The Graduate students and someone from UPC and we'll get together and decide what the movement's going to do and we said no I mean we were torn I mean that really tore me apart but I knew knew that we'd have no movement at all I knew it if it were just Representatives if it were just a few people getting together in a room and deciding what was going to happen it's a difference between um spontaneity and the belief that that spontaneous actions are are the way in which you um organize people and you and you create social change and then there are other views that that you take a different strategy of organizing people of of um of taking a more step-by-step process of trying to build up um a base and it was certainly true in the anti-art time movement that the roughest thing for us was not the opposition of the university in fact that fed it repeatedly the university repressing us there were certain times where kind of scared us and we didn't know what quite to do but the most difficult thing was certainly the struggle with between the campaign against AP partai the people around it you know and people in United people of color what the respon of many white students was that we were trying to uh take over the movement or control it or whatever instead of seeing that if you want input and you need it because if you're going to deal with racism you're going to have to deal with oral students if you want input then you've got to set up a structure where we can provide that input where we can help provide leadership I think without acknowledging that um the movement is dead so we said hey we got to start this organizing and it has to focus focus on the University on divestment and on the University's ties with athe uh not just on education or what AP partide was and one of the things besides focusing on the University we felt was you can't just talk about it your action has to expose the university do do not only were there these internal differences but there was constant pressure from the administration which was saying that holding a sit in on the steps at all was illegal the administration was constantly coming out with little leaflets to say that that we were dirty that we had lights that that we were a fire has that we were anything you know trying to trying to undermine us or the police would come out and wake people up in the mornings or jab them or or walk up onto the steps and and harass people and cause a confrontation and that's why you didn't want to leave the steps too long because you didn't know if something was going to happen that was going to endanger this thing on April 15th day six of the s a noon rally attracted 1500 people when members of UPC the United people of color publicly announced that they would give their full support to this action despite the disagreements several people have had some questions about whether or not they should support this action of taking the uh taking Steve Vio Plaza I'd say that I don't know how it's possible for any Humane person to oppose this action I call on all students to voluntarily come up on their own time even if it's only for an hour at lunch or when you have a few hours to PL to study but to come up here and be present on his steps later that day the chancellor of the University published a statement declaring his intention to arrest anyone who stayed on the steps the following night April 16th 1985 5:30 a.m. after a t night on the steps the police surrounded the s in and moved in to arrest 165 demonstrators I am lieen ston of the University of California Police Department War the condition of unlawful assembly exists and in the name of the people of the State of California I command you to immedately dispers and the [Applause] cus they respond with police we see that they respond with intimidation tactics I am peaceful and I stand for divestment I believe all of us are peacefully here to resolve this conflict and I want everyone to watch the way the police conduct [Applause] themselves [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] people heyy a they're not us this The Taking of that risk the forcing people to make choices is what's critical I mean when you take those kind of risks you make every single person say to themselves why didn't I take that risk why is it that I am not where those people are why am is it me on this side of the police barricade rather than with them on the other side of the police barricade why is it me with my hands free and them with their hands cuffed somebody grab my [Music] fo look at what you're doing seiz the university today seiz the university today we'll be back we'll be [Applause] back our point is to stay here until divestment we are staying unless we are dragged Away by force against our will amen so by the time the police made the bust you know they they tried to wipe out that organizing that intense amount of activity that was going on they took our file cabinet they they took our tables they took our organizers but like I say it was depressing when we were leaving to think that we were going and then we look out the bus windows we see all these people laying down we saw Wy gravy laying down all these people interfering with the buses we go hey you know that they're pretty [Applause] [Music] [Applause] spunky and I think it changed a lot of people's ideas about what it meant to get arrested and what it means to be a criminal I mean everybody knows the criminals are you know both the and the South African government and the criminals are Reagan and the criminals are those people who are who are conspiring with the South African government and when people were their only crime was was sleeping on steps you know that changed a lot of people's minds about what actually is criminality and and who's right and who's wrong and and um I know that shook a lot of people sitting on the bus and being driven off to jail we thought well that's the end and when we were in jail and we heard a 5,000 person rally there is a threep part solidarity here at least solidarity of course with the people of South Africa it is also solidarity with the movement and the United States it is a nationwide movement Colombia and rers are are out right now they are watching you don't let them down either if they can crush the Berkeley students they can crush the others too but they won't crush the Berkeley [Music] students well they didn't crush the Berkeley students on the contrary when we got out of jail that night and we returned to the steps it was incredible there were 2,000 people who had come out to show their support and far from being over students and community members had an increased commitment to staying on the steps and keeping the steps until divestment was achieved take more to [Music] [Applause] [Music] nowen been near 16 days I came out on day six because uh that morning the uh brothers and sisters that got arrested had to need they needed solidarity they needed support they needed it right immediately so I came out and joined the action and uh with an action like this when you join belief is in the movement divestment right now this action's all about that so you got to [Applause] maintain [Applause] us on April 24th uh as a result of the the continued pressure by the students in the sitting the Regents agreed to hold a forum uh where the issue of divestment would be discussed they held this meeting uh to give us the opportunity to have a discussion on it before the the June meeting where they would vote um we thought it was um interesting that the meeting is being held in June given that was when um Berkeley would not be in session students wouldn't be around whatever the true figure American Investment is undoubtedly crucial in running South Africa it is concentrated in several strategic sectors American firms control nearly half of South Africa's oil 70% of its computers and a third of its automobile industry and this is a state that not only legally enforces the super exploitation of black South Africans but it is a state that is increasingly militarized geared for war effort against the black majority's demands for a meaningful political voice military advisers sit in on every decision-making body from the municipal level up military advisers help American companies plan what they will do in the event of civil unrest white South African males over the age of 18 are subject to up to 10 years of compulsory military service this is a country gearing up for a total Onslaught and American companies are helping computers sold by IBM and huet pass Packard helped to run the past system the Army and the Air Force technology from American firms helps run the coal into gas plants and the nuclear power plant that may make South Africa self-sufficient in fuel and companies like General Motors provide vehicles that carry troops into townships to crush resistance everyone agrees that time is running out for the white minority regime if American companies did not provide strategic imp puts for the economy and military time would run out faster still and to those who fear that an American withdrawal would be followed by a chaos that would hurt black South Africans the most one can only ask what they think is happening in South Africa now I hope you will hear me out if I knew exactly what I was intending to do and the reason for it there would be no reason for me to be here today I am doing what I can to inform myself about this issue I am that is what I'm trying to do the regions don't need more time to study the issue they have had eight years to think about it we want a decision and we want it at the next Regent meeting and finally let me say it once again here before all of you I do not want to retire on the profits which have been earned from South African slavery and I am not alone we want divestment we want full divestment and we want it [Applause] now the occupation of the steps continued and on May 13th Bishop Desmond Tutu came to speak at the University's Greek Theater the most horrendous aspects of apartate became issues that people knew about in America because they were beamed into the living rooms of Americans so that people now know when we talk about a single sex hostel we're not talking about a holiday resort we're talking about somewhere where God's children are coped up simply and solely because they are black and somebody saying that well you know black men black women black children they don't really [Music] want family life you know they are not like us they want to say that to us and you are saying uhuh no no no these are God's children these are God's children and they are people of infinite value because they are created in the image of [Applause] God [Applause] and when and when you dehumanize them in an extraordinary way because we inhabit a moral Universe we inhabit the universe of a God who says justice oppression right wrong exploitation hey this matter in my kind of world we worship that kind of God and you are affirming that when you dehumanize others in this universe in a very very strange way you dehumanize yourself Clark no Duke Magan no [Music] [Applause] gains 9 yes 14 no two disqualifications and [Applause] one the Willie Brown divestment proposal has been voted down police are grabbing and pushing some of the protesters who have begun to chant and throw their fact similes of South African pass books in the air police have entered with plastic handcuffs as we expected the regions did not vote for divestment and uh we were faced with the task of figuring out how we were going to revive this movement when we returned to campus in the fall however over the summer there were signs which showed that the movement had had a clear effect during the summer Congress imposed a mild form of sanctions against the South African government uh which amounted to a rejection of Reagan's policy of constructive engagement we also in South Africa saw increased repression um there was the uh complete news blackout which we saw as a way in which or tactic by the South African government to limit um information um since information from South Africa had in fact started this movement over here on November 6th we held a sitting in bco Hall which is organized by United people of color it was intended to keep the pressure on the University so the issue wouldn't die down uh we held a teaching in the building at the same time where we try to draw the connection between the civil rights movement in this country and the struggle for Liberation in South Africa okay I want to read you something that our wonderful beautiful I won't even call him a name David Gardner wrote and said okay he said it is my clear impression that the board of regent do regard the events that occurred in South Africa since the adoption of the June resolution as having altered the basis of the boy's decisions do you know what this means this means that he says that hundreds of my brothers and sisters Bloods mean nothing that is why we are here as people of color we intrinsically know what is happening in South Africa it is our brothers and sisters we are suffering the same oppression here those of you who don't think we are come [Applause] this movement there's been some right between th students on the campus and white students about how to work together and how to build multi on this issue and it has easy but I think that today know that we demonstrated that we can work together show respect for each other and and cooperate and I hope instead of things to come in the future I want to say thank [Applause] you the city in Sprout turned out to be very successful over 140 people were arrested um for refusing to vacate the building on the order of the uh UC police um but more importantly to us was the fact that uh several uh third war students were now becoming active involved in the movement as they had not been before and we prepared for the spring which ended up being quite [Applause] sign protesters us Africa us see [Applause] [Music] USA [Applause] so we knew that in order to force the University of California to divest we would have to take a much stronger and more direct action than we had the year here before um that's how the Shany Town idea came up remember we're having an occupation of that Shanny Town we're going to camp out there as long as it takes so we need people out there at night tonight especially at 10:00 at night the university is already threatened to shut us down at 10:00 tonight so everyone come out with your sleeping bags come out with your friends come out with your friends sleeping bags let's go the idea was to focus the confrontation or the target of our action on the University and in the center of the campus of the University at um the Chancellor's office which is in the center of the campus our decision was to uh build a Shanny town and a very concrete symbol of South African apart side and physical Shan structures enlarged and to put them right in front of the Chancellor's office we had like eight shannies right in front of the office blocking access to the office and the idea was that was going to force a confrontation either they were going to have to um divest take some action towards divestment or they were going to have to tear down the Shany Town it was intended to force a confrontation so that they would have to deal with the issue the message from South Africa right was one of anger it was one of we are going to do it you know at the cost of being beat up of the cost of being shot and I think people really identified with that at 1 in the morning April 1st 1986 the police moved in to arrest the demonstrators and destroy the shanet town just like South Africa just like sou Africa just [Applause] like AF AF [Applause] AF [Applause] hey put your hands behind your back put your hands behind your back [ __ ] off take a [Music] [Applause] [ __ ] anybody wants to step out now and go these easy way step on out with us there no easy way way punch in the face go get a [Music] [Music] job our orientation was much different we weren't interested in confrontation uh with the police uh we didn't think the confrontation with the police we didn't think we were prepared for it we think we would just get hurt and and get arrested and um we didn't necessarily see that as being advantageous and we didn't um we didn't think that that was the best way to get our point across white students saw it I think abstracted it from like it's happening over there and it's easier e to deal with it over there than to deal with the one-on-one struggle in this country what is it that keeps thoral students and white students separate it's racism it's the structure it's the system but often times they tended to overlook it or not deal with it and Proclaim themselves to be well I'm Progressive I can't be racist if I identify you know I and I struggle Against Racism but couldn't see that in day-to-day interactions with the students there was this big gap and there was these big conflicts after the first shanet town the university came down really hard right away they um and not only did they attack people's uh throw people in jail but they tried to eliminate our ability to protest and that really affected people first of all the university went to court seeking an injunction prohibiting all protest in front of the administration building secondly they issued Banning orders barring 19 people from coming on to campus or even attending their classes and finally leading activists were being being harassed off campus by undercover police who have been banned from this campus are going go right the repression shocked the campus and it changed the stakes of the protest now there was no legal way to continue the Shany Town demonstration instead of tolerating Free Speech the university had engaged in a sophisticated South Africa like Crackdown but the Shany Town went up [Applause] [Music] again [Music] the afternoon of April 2nd 1986 a whole new Shany Town went up in front of the Chancellor's [Music] office going [Music] myself [Music] up your [Music] boots your roots it's not black it's not white it's not red it's not yellow it's not black it's not white it's not red it's not yellow down down to earth down to at 3:00 a.m. the police moved in they were faced with a much larger group of demonstrators than the night before half of the people were inside the shanet town but half of the people were outside the police lines either leave or go to jail make Choice go to jail but like to know what I'm [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] watch out [Applause] down the police were having an even harder time with the crowd outside their police lines than with the people inside the Shany Town cuz the crowd outside was building barricades to block the police buses from taking people to jail this was also a delaying tactic to prolong the action so that when students came back to campus in the morning they could see what was going going [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] on [Music] know what I'm arrested for anything to say this morning gentlemen yeah how are you today this aren't just your regular Joe SM you know cop on the corner coming in now these were like your blue Meanies from Oakland who get off on beating people you know and uh this was a a really a political paramilitary force we were take taken on here in Berkeley that you know had in 1969 you know invaded the the campus with helicopters we want the prisoners released and we want full divestment right now we might not get it but we've given it our best shot and people feel really good like we won we've been chanting just like South Africa because of what they've been doing to us and now it's just like South Africa because we're winning and we we've thrown them back repeatedly repeatedly we they they they they open that guy's skull last night put six stitches in the skull and they got it back in their faces just what they deserve they [Applause] [Music] Fu get him [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] at 6:00 a.m. with all the arrests completed the buses were ready to move and bring the demonstrators to [Applause] [Music] [Applause] jail [Applause] [Music] [Applause] watch [Applause] watch [Applause] watch the [Applause] bottle got up there you go as the bus has moved off campus students made one last effort to blockade under under the symbolic center of the University at sather [Applause] [Applause] gate worlding the whole world watching the world watching worlding [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] world [Music] defeated the people United [Music] deated [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the whole Shany Town protest got much much heavier than anybody expected a lot of people loved that they got off on conflict with the police or felt inspired by the level of resistance other people were critical of the violence felt that it was immature were scared by the violence and were afraid of the implications it would have for campus politics but the protest completely polarized the groups active in the anti- aarti movement campaign against apart tide was dead set on building a third Shan town as soon as possible but United people of color basically laid out an ultimatum not to do it I didn't really I didn't want to engage in violence with these police you know I wanted to keep the the the the protest as a form a debate we're we're challenging this right-wing Trend right through our actions we we're willing to disrupt your activity but we're not going to accept you doing violence against us that was a lot of what was going on here it wasn't just about South Africa it was about rebellion in the United States on the Berkeley campus I do believe that the South Africa issue was something that people could rally around but I also look at the fact that throughout the United States on college campuses the third world students and the white students split on the issue to me that that says a lot that that points out to the fact that racism has been something that has been used to keep us separate to keep us from working together because if we came together we would be very powerful I mean we would be making change in this country now tell me something Mr government man tell me [Music] something [Music] keep the As upall and and sure that the as got plenty plent it is no myy we're making history it is no mystery we winning Victory it is no myy we're making hisory it is no mysty we winning Victory tell me something Mr police tell me [Music] something the Dr boot kick the dirty bag trick on your racist politics your racist politics [Music] that up that Noy making history it is Noy winning Victory it is no mystery we're making history it is no mystery we're winning tell me something Mr Right wi tell me something long you [Music] Mur the [Music] way well there was and and a lot